MANILA, Philippines—Standing amid an array of foreign assault rifles and local shotguns at one of the Philippines' largest shopping malls, firearms aficionados celebrated the rise of the nation's new president.

Benigno Aquino, who took office on June 30, is an avid sports shooter and clips on YouTube show him using a semi-automatic pistol with great skill at a target shooting competition.

As an act of solidarity with the shooting community, we attended the gun show at Megamall yesterday. Some observations:

1. The dealers and employees who are our long time friends over the years went out of their way to greet us and make us feel welcome. We enjoyed our long chats about their latest products and complimentary food by Willi Hahn of Hahn Manila and Gina Angangco and Bob Sajot of Armscor. As a result, since we had some extra cash, we were seduced into buying some new goodies. (JJFAT got a Norinco M4 and I will be getting the Colt M4 .22 hehe).

2. Prices have gone substantially upwards. The traditional brands of guns such as Glock, S&W, Mossberg, have all gone from the usual 25-35K to about 50-65K. The prices of the finer pistols and hunting rifles such as Sig Sauer, Para Ord, Colt, Anshutz have gone though the roof at 80-100K+.